Salman Butt returns to Pak, claims innocence in spot-fixing scandal

Lahore, Pakistan: Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt is back in his home country after serving time in a British jail for match-fixing, insisting he was guilty of nothing but failure to report corrupt approaches from bookmakers.

Butt arrived in Lahore in the early hours of Friday morning after being freed from Canterbury Prison in England, having completed just seven months of a 2 1/2-year sentence for fixing. He was greeted at the airport by hundreds of fans.

Butt said he never admitted to the spot fixing that he and two teammates were convicted for, but apologised to a crowd of supporters for not reporting to cricket authorities the several approaches he had received from bookmakers.

“I hope people can forgive me for the allegations on me, especially for failure to report,” Butt said in comments translated from Urdu and broadcast by the Associated Press. “I accept the blame for that, just that and that is my fault that I didn’t report.

“But I have never in my whole career … accepted any offer, have never entertained any offer, practically there has never been any incident in any match that was linked to any offer that I received.”

AP